Pink Blob, wihtikow, Mike Trask, and Bill Can
Pink Blob - HOPE SO
From 2012-2017 the Toronto alt-pop band Weaves were the darlings of the independent Canadian music scene. I never got it, I wasn’t part of the club. To my tastes they never fully embraced the weirdness factor that so many music pundits hailed as their superpower. Then in 2022, ex-Weaves members Morgan Waters and Spencer Cole gave us their new project, Pink Blob and I was hooked. Pink Blob is everything I wanted Weaves to be. It is avant-pop that’s actually embracing the “avant” part of that genre descriptor. Their sophomore album, HOPE SO, arrived in May and it’s quirky, fun, weird and a truly refreshing take on pop music.
wihtikow - ᐊᐦᒐᕽ
Wihtikow is the project from Amiskwaciy ᐃᒥᐢᑿᒋᐩ (Edmonton) artist Daniel Callihoo. The latest release, ᐊᐦᒐᕽ (which translates to soul), is a love letter to nature in all its beauty and ugliness. Opening with droned out electronics and inaudible spoken word that gives way to downtempo beats and fuzzed out synths, the first two tracks showcase wihtikow’s prowess. Track three is an outlier on the album, a dance floor ready banger that’s super fun. As great as the record begins, it’s the back half that I appreciate most as wihtikow finds the perfect balance of downtempo beats, organic sounding electronics, (likely some field recordings), and a sonic haze that’s foreboding, yet beautiful.
Mike Trask - BEET
A staple in the East Coast music scene, Mike Trask returns with a raw and rugged release entitled BEET. Recorded live off the floor, his new album captures some of the essence of his highly lauded live show. Rootsy blues with a touch of outlaw country leanings, Trask continues his impressive output with one of my favourites in his catalog. Whether he’s capturing the blue collar conundrum (“Roll Up Your Sleeves”), struggling to get ahead (“Only Go Backwards”), or falling prey to lack of ambition (“I’m A Dog”), Trask offers a modern take on the blues that cannot be understated.
Bill Can - T-BALL
Bill Can is a Vancouver lo-fi, freak-out, genre-salad, artistically-original band who’ve been churning out wild recordings since 2022. Their latest effort is called T-BALL and it moves from noise-punk, to garage-psych, to 90s alt-rock, to indie-Calypso!?! By all accounts none of this should work but the band comes off as charming and goofy making it hard to not draw comparisons to Ween. Bill Can is tough to keep up with though as they release records at a break-neck pace but T-BALL is one I don’t plan to just gloss over.
